by Sky Winters
He handed her one of the copper mugs, the thing cool in her hand.
“It’s made with ginger, lime, and vodka. Pretty simple, but tasty.”
Cassie took a sip, the drink delicious and refreshing.
“It’s normally a warmer-months drink, but I decided I couldn’t really wait for summer,” he said with a smile.
The two of them returned to the couch to see that the girls had both fallen asleep.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” said Nick. “You take one of the twins, I’ll take the other, and well get those two troublemakers into bed. Then we can reward our very, very hard work with these drinks out on the balcony. Maybe even have a couple more after that.”
He gave Cassie a wink, and she felt a hot blush spread across her face.
“Sounds like a plan,” she said.
They set down their drinks and brought the girls to their bedrooms. Amy woke up just enough when Amy brought her in to get into her pajamas, and once she was under the covers she was out like a light.
Back in the living room, Cassie and Nick grabbed their drinks and headed out onto the balcony. The evening was warmer than it had been, and Cassie thought it the perfect weather for a cool drink and some good company.
The two of them sat in silence for a time, sipping their drinks and taking in the warm weather. After a little while, the alcohol began to take hold of Cassie. She felt her mind mellow and her muscles relax, which is exactly what she’d wanted after long day of working out and handling the girls.
“You ever feel totally worn out but super good after a workout?” asked Cassie, breaking the silence.
Nick flashed her a smile.
“That’s how you know it was a good one,” he said. “You feel bad but good. And you’ll probably sleep like a baby tonight.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Been feeling anxious.”
The words slipped out of Cassie – she didn’t mean to make such a reveal.
“Oh yeah?” asked Nick. “Why’s that?”
“I don’t really know,” she said. “Just…feeling like something bad is on the horizon.”
“Don’t let Josh’s protectiveness get the better of you,” he said. “He knows how to handle things, but he’s got a way of making you feel like there’s always disaster on the horizon unless you do exactly what he says. Makes him an effective CEO, but it can leave you feeling a little on-edge.”
“I hope that’s it,” said Cassie.
“Or maybe you’re still a little unsure of this weird situation you’ve gotten yourself into. You’re fitting in great, but it has only been a week.”
Nick’s words rang true.
“Maybe it’s that,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong – you guys are all great and I love the girls. But…the thing with three dads, and all the business with being super paranoid about some other businessmen…it’s kind of strange.”
She didn’t say anything about the bears, which was perhaps the most bizarre of all.
“How about you tell me about the girls’ mother,” said Cassie. “That might make me feel a little better.”
“Rosemary?” asked Nick. “She was a wonderful woman. One who we all loved equally. She was one of those women who had a way of lighting up a room as soon as she came in, one of those women who made you feel like you were the only other person in the world when she was with you.”
“But you weren’t the only other person in the world,” said Cassie. “There’s Caleb and Josh. And you all…shared her? Like some kind of poly thing?”
Nick laughed.
“It’s more complicated than that. But we all loved her equally, and she loved us the same way. There was never any jealousy between the four of us. She had this magical way of letting us know that her love was perfectly balanced among all of us.”
A smile formed on Cassie’s face. It was weird, definitely, but having all three of these men to herself was something that had a certain appeal. She imagined sleeping in bed with Caleb one night, then Nick the next, and then, well, Josh was a little more aloof than the other two, but just as gorgeous in his own way.
Three men. Three men and one Cassie. Not only did it seem appealing, the idea was turning her on as she sat there enjoying her drink. And Nick was so close...she imagined reaching over taking his hand, bringing him close and kissing him hard.
“And the girls?” she asked.
“They loved it,” he said. “They got all the attention and love and everything else they needed.”
“I have to ask,” she said. “Which one of you is the father?”
A hard look formed on Nick’s face, one that suggested he was trying to figure out how to answer her question.
Or that he was coming up with a good lie.
“We all loved Rosemary,” he said, his tone one of implication. “And when she became pregnant, we all, naturally, wondered which of us was the father. But the more discussed the subject, especially in light of our…unique living situation, the more we felt it didn’t matter which one of us was. We were all their parents and knowing who was the technical father just wasn’t important. It might even make things more difficult.”
“But won’t the girls want to know eventually? I mean, they can’t help but be curious when they get older.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. And we’re hoping by then they’ll already be grown. But it’s just not something we think about.”
Cassie’s eyes turned back to the woods, to one of the trees rustling in a strange way which reminded her of the other night, when she saw the pack of bears emerge.
Nick sat up a bit, his eyes focused on the same spot. But when the movement failed to repeat, he slowly sat back.
“And how did the girls take the loss?” she asked, returning to the conversation.
“About as well as we could hope,” he said. “It wasn’t pretty, and there’s really no way kids can get over something like that, but they’ve both been strong. We’ve been proud of them.”
The trees rustled again, and this time Nick didn’t stay seated. He jumped out of chair with surprising speed and ran over to the railing.
“What is it?” asked Cassie nervously.
Nick held up his hand, a gesture for her to stay quiet.
She didn’t need to wait long to get her answer. The movement continued, now accompanied by soft thudding on the forest floor.
Then a huge, hulking brown bear emerged from the tree line, hot steam shooting in snorts from its noise. At first it did nothing other than stare, its black eyes fixed on Nick. After this it rose on its back legs and let out a low, snarling roar.
“Shit!” shouted Nick.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Cassie, leaping to her feet.
The bear didn’t wait for them to make any other reactions. It rushed toward them, cutting across the property line and storming up the stairs onto the patio.
“Hurry and get in the house!” shouted Nick.
But Cassie was too frightened to react. She only managed to turn her body toward the door before the bear had cut the distance down to only a few feet.
“Oh, fuck,” she said, the thought flashing in her mind that these might be the last words she spoke.
But what happened next not only saved her life but was the most incredible thing she’d ever seen.
Nick’s hands shot out toward the bear as it lunged at Cassie. He grabbed one of the huge paws of the bear and took hold, pushing the massive beast away from Cassie and sending it to the ground in a crash.
It was strength no human should’ve possessed. But as Cassie was about to learn, Nick was no human.
He was something else.
Cassie staggered backward, putting a few feet between her and Nick and the bear. Time seemed to slow down as the bear struggled to its feet.
“Cassie!” he shouted. “Now! Get inside!”
She nodded weakly, but her body remained frozen in place. But as shocked as she was, what she would see next was something that made
her feel as though she was in the middle of some kind of horrible dream.
Over the course of a few seconds, Nick changed. He stood up straight, closed his eyes and let an expression of tight concentration form on his face. His body grew in size, jet black fur sprouted from his skin, and his teeth became razor sharp.
He was no longer a human, but a large, black bear.
Cassie tried to scream, but no sound came out. However, frozen she was before, now she was completely petrified.
Nick, now shifted fully into his bear form, rushed toward the first bear just as it climbed up to its feet. Nick moved quickly, opening his mouth and sinking his teeth into the brown-fur-covered flesh of the other bear. It let out a low snarl as Nick attacked it, its claws swiping through the air and coming only a few inches from Cassie’s face.
Cassie finally gained the presence of mind to back up, moving away from the battle on the balcony. Nick and the other bar struggled, and after several long moments of heated combat, Nick gained the upper hand. He pinned the bear down and brought his claw-lined paw down on its face, cutting deep red gashes into its skin.
The pain must’ve given the brown bear a burst of adrenaline-fueled strength, as he was able to push Nick off him, sending Nick crashing into the balcony chairs.
The brown bear didn’t waste its opportunity to escape. It rose to its feet, the creature’s face bleeding heavily and matting the dark fur as it turned and clambered down the balcony stairs and off into the woods.
Nick watched the bear disappear into the forest, his bulky body tense. Then he turned toward Cassie, who was still stone-solid with fear. Though she knew she had nothing to fear from Nick, even in his monstrous form, her body still screamed at her to flee as quickly as she could.
He quickly shifted back to his familiar human form and approached Cassie.
“Are you okay?” he asked, putting his hand on her face.
“What…what the hell happened?” she demanded. “What, what are you?”
“I’m a shifter,” he said, tossing out the words as though they were a simple explanation. “We all are.”
He turned his attention back to the woods.
“You have to get into the house,” he said. “Check on the girls.”
“What are you going to do?” Cassie asked.
“Just go check on the girls.”
Cassie nodded and hurried back into the house. Her heart pounding, she ran down the long hallway leading to the girl’s bedroom. She threw open the doors to the bedrooms one by one, and saw that, thankfully, the girls were both not only safe, but still asleep. The fight had happened far enough away from their rooms that they hadn’t been awoken by the noise.
One of the perks of living on a massive estate, Cassie considered.
Before she could make another move, a low rumbling sounded through the house. Panic gripped her, but the explanation for the noise was revealed as massive steel slats descended down over the windows, covering them tightly.
Cassie hurried to the living room just in time to see more steel slats fall over the rest of the glass walls of the house, sealing them in. Nick returned to the room and looked Cassie up and down with eager eyes.
“You’re okay?” he asked. “The girls are okay?”
“They’re fine,” she said as the steel slats finished closing with a locking click.
“We have security in the house,” said Nick. “Caleb and Josh are in Boston, but they’re on their way back now. They’ll be here in a few hours and we can figure this out then.”
Cassie couldn’t take any more.
“Figure WHAT out?” she demanded. “What the hell is going on? Who was that bear? How are you able to…turn into a bear?”
Nick, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, his bulky, sculpted torso on full display, stepped over to Cassie and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“I’m just what I said,” he told her. “A shifter.”
“A what?” she asked, her eyes wide. “What does that mean?”
“It means just what you saw,” he said. “My clan and I are humans with the power to transform into beasts. Into bears.”
“How…how could you all have kept this from me?” she asked.
“Because it wasn’t safe to tell you,” he said.
As fearful as she was, Cassie felt something else in Nick’s presence. She felt safe, she felt close, and she felt an attraction to him that seemed pushed into overdrive by the adrenaline rushing through her.
Which is why she didn’t resist in the slightest when he kissed her.
CHAPTER 17
CASSIE
Nick’s kiss was incomparable. He tasted like nothing she’d ever known before. It was rustic and masculine and intense. Through the passion whirling inside of her, she wondered whether or not she’d know he was an animal by his taste if she didn’t already.
Nick held her close, pressing her body against his. She felt small in front of him, small and vulnerable but safe at the same time. He’d proven that he’d protect her, that he’d put his own safety at risk to keep her out of danger.
She’d never known that before, never known a man who would put her before himself. And that only made her want to give herself over to him even more.
Nick’s hands moved over Cassie’s body, feeling her breasts and curves through her clothes. She loved the sensation of his large, strong hands on her body, and she could hardly wait for him to get her out of her clothing.
And Nick couldn’t wait either. He grabbed the hem of her blouse and took it off so quickly that Cassie feared he might tear the fabric. She helped the process along by stepping out of her shoes and undoing the button and zipper of her pants, her lips still locked onto Nick’s.
He was in nothing but jeans, which made it wonderfully simple for Cassie to undress him. Even better, she saw that he wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath the denim. Taking the zipper down slowly, she exposed first the thick thatch of his pubic hair, which was the same golden blond color as the close-cropped hair on his head.
Next, she laid bare the first few inches of his engorged prick, her pussy throbbing with more anticipation the more she exposed. She gave the waist of his jeans a quick tug, sending his cock springing out. To her delight, she saw that it was as thick and long and gorgeous as the rest of Nick’s body would suggest.
She helped him out of his jeans, and once he was totally naked, Cassie took a slow, lingering gaze at his solid, muscular body. His pecs reminded of her stones, his abs were bulging and defined, and the notches of his hips pointed down, right to his fully-erect cock.
Cassie reached down and took hold of him, wrapping her fingers around his girth. And as she held his warm, stiff prick in her hand, she allowed herself just a moment to try to figure out what was going on in her head. She’d gone from being near death to in Nick’s embrace, and that wasn’t even taking into consideration the situation with Caleb.
She pushed that all out of her mind as quickly as she could, letting the passion take hold of her once again.
“What are we doing?” she asked, her voice breathy.
“I don’t know,” said Nick. “But I’m cool with it.”
“Me too,” said Cassie, her voice heavy and breathy with arousal.
Nick soon had her down to her underwear, his eyes narrowed at her like she was a tasty snack. Something about his gaze turned Cassie on wildly, and all she wanted was to be under that huge, gorgeous body.
Or in front of it, which is what Nick had in mind.
He quickly got Cassie out of her bra, tossing it aside before sliding the blue thong she wore down her legs. Nick pulled her close once again, kissing her hard and deep, this time running his hand up the delicate skin of her inner tight and over the soaking wet opening of her cunt.
Cassie moaned with delight as he touched her, the feeling of his fingers against her lips and clit, shockwaves of pleasure running through her body and almost causing her knees to buckle under her.
Nick then placed his
hands on her slim, curvy hips and lifted her up as though she weighed no more than a few pounds. His strength was something else, effortless and overwhelming, and it turned Cassie on more than she could stand.
He quickly turned her around, carrying her lithe body over to the back of the couch and gently guiding her onto it. Cassie climbed onto the cushions, assuming a position on all fours, her hair draped down both sides of her face.
She felt her cunt grow hot with anticipation. From her position she was unable to see exactly what Nick was doing, only that he was behind her and preparing to mount her like an animal desperate to rut.
He clamped his hands down again on her hips, the head of his cock grazing against her lips. Cassie let out a moan in anticipation, her body begging to be filled by him. She wiggled her round ass, beckoning him, inviting him to penetrate her.
But he didn’t need any convincing. Nick pushed his cock forward, spreading open her lips and entering her. Cassie let out a sigh, needing more and more of him right them, right there. Nick pushed more of his cock into her, his girth so thick that she worried for a brief moment that she might not be able to fit all of him.
Cassie was so wet, however, that he slid into her with ease. And once he was fully plunged he let out a low moan, one in which Cassie swore she could hear traces of the bear she’d seen only moments before. Nick raised his right hand and brought it down hard onto her soft, ripe ass, the clap sounding out through the living room.
He pulled back, withdrawing a few inches of his prick only to shove them back in. Nick started slowly in this way, taking out his cock gradually enough for Cassie to feel every bit of him, then plunging into her again and again.
Cassie tossed her hair aside, glancing back at Nick and watching his beefy body work, his muscles tensing and releasing with each thrust. Cassie pushed her ass back, helping Nick move deeper into her.
Soon, Cassie could feel the full force of Nick’s animal side, his hips pounding into her faster and harder than any normal human could do. The power behind each thrust coaxed her orgasm out from deep within her, bringing more and more into focus until she knew it was right on the brink of breaking loose and rushing through her body.